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1/23/2025

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences just announced the Academy Award nominations today. There really wasn't much in the way of surprises. Aside from Wicked being better than expected and nabbing a best picture nom on top of a fair whack of the expected acting and production awards, the only thing I didn't really expect was The Substance, a gruesome and graphic body horror, nabbing its own best picture nom. I would love to talk about The Substance, but unfortunately I've never seen it. So what's there left to talk about? Well, whats everyone else talking about?

Oh boy what is everyone talking about indeed. I'm gonna bury the lede here so I'm sorry in advance. Every so often the Academy deems it necessary to signal their virtue and heap tons of awards attention on movies that really don't deserve it. Perhaps the most infamous example of this tendency is 2004's Crash; a best picture winner infamous for a simplistic treatment of race issues in America. It won over much more well remembered movies like Brokeback Mountain. I guess gay people weren't as exploitable for awards attention back then. If you don't remember that one, perhaps you remember The Green Book (2018). A movie that tackled America's history with racism that succeeded in making white Americans feel good that racism was solved years ago. It won the same year as Roma, and BlacKkKlansman. In both these cases it sure as hell looks a lot like the Academy is going out of its way to award movies that deal with progressive issues, but are as non-confrontational to their outdated liberal sensibilities as possible. I would also place the the award Hattie McDaniel won for her role in Gone with the Wind in this company. They want to appear progressive while being as safe as possible. Well, they're doing it again. The movie that nabbed the most amount of nominations was Emilia Pérez.

Emilia Pérez is a crime drama musical about the gender transition and moral redemption of a Mexican cartel boss. Already there are some yellow flags. That story could be told sensitively, but it takes delicacy. Emilia Pérez doesn't have this.

Yeah... no delicacy there. I'll grant you that's just one song in a whole musical, and like theres no context there, and it could be satirical and... Ok, ok believe me I gave this movie the benefit of the doubt. Not enough to watch it admittedly but enough to see what people were saying about it, and... it's not inspiring confidence. GLAAD was quoted by online magazine "them" calling it: a "profoundly retrograde portrayal of a trans woman." In that same article Reanna Cruz on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast was quoted saying "The entire time I was watching it I had a really weird feeling in my stomach because to me it seemed like the filmmaker was painting trans women as liars, Liars and people that can’t tell the truth and they don’t know who they are." For a more indepth look at the movie's failings by a trans person I recommend this video by just2film. I'm going on faith that she isn't misrepresenting the movie, but all the information seems consistent with what I've heard from other sources. So, I guess transpeople are now a significant enough minority to mine for sympathy and attention. yay.